The Real Price of War: How You Pay for the War on Terror [Hardcover]

Joshua Goldstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2004

Are Americans in denial about the costs of the War on Terror? In The Real Price of War, Joshua S. Goldstein argues that we need to face up to what the war costs the average American—both in taxes and in changes to our way of life. Goldstein contends that in order to protect the United States from future attacks, we must fight—and win—the War on Terror. Yet even as President Bush campaigns on promises of national security, his administration is cutting taxes and increasing deficit spending, resulting in too little money to eradicate terrorism and a crippling burden of national debt for future generations to pay.

The Real Price of War breaks down billion-dollar government expenditures into the prices individual Americans are paying through their taxes. Goldstein estimates that the average American household currently pays $500 each month to finance war. Beyond the dollars and cents that finance military operations and increased security within the U.S., the War on Terror also costs America in less tangible ways, including lost lives, reduced revenue from international travelers, and budget pressures on local governments. The longer the war continues, the greater these costs. In order to win the war faster, Goldstein argues for an increase in war funding, at a cost of about $100 per household per month, to better fund military spending, homeland security, and foreign aid and diplomacy.

Americans have been told that the War on Terror is a war without sacrifice. But as Goldstein emphatically states: “These truths should be self-evident: The nation is at war. The war is expensive. Someone has to pay for it.”

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A scholar at Brown University offers this compact and cogent study of the costs of the war on terror and how to meet them more effectively. At the present time, the costs of the war, as stated by the administration, are being met through regressive taxes, budget cuts at all levels, inflation and deficit spending. The historical narrative of how these methods have worked (or not worked) in the past is integrated with this section of the book at a level suitable for the lay reader. The author emphasizes that a mood of national commitment and self-sacrifice was there to be drawn on in WWII and immediately after 9/11. But the Bush administration's desire to have both a tax cut and the war on terror has led to failure to rally the nation and underfunding areas like veterans' programs and foreign aid, giving a strong impression abroad of a lack of national will. Goldstein suggests that rescinding the last tax cuts is a good starting point for a national and even international rallying, one that will keep the war on terror from dragging on as long as the Thirty Years' War. In attempting to face facts as he sees them, Goldstein makes a fine example of a nonideologue at work.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

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“An interesting book that raises many important questions.”
-Journal of Peace Research

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“Comprehensive examination of the myriad costs of war.”
-Forecast

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“A compact and cogent study. Goldstein makes a fine example of a nonideologue at work.
-Publishers Weekly

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“Goldstein does an admirable job in breaking down current war costs and who we pay them.”
-Jewish Herald-Voice

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See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 239 pages
• Publisher: New York University Press (August 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814731619
• ISBN-13: 978-0814731611
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,388,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joshua S. Goldstein is a professor at the School of International Service at American University, winner of the International Studies Association "Book of the Decade" award, among others, author of International Relations (10th edition), and a research scholar at the University of Massachusetts. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. His new book, Winning the War on War (Dutton, Sept. 2011), shows that despite the gory headlines the decade since 9/11 has been the most peaceful worldwide in a century.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for Republicans, November 7, 2004

By 

Brad Wallace "Silverlined" (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Real Price of War: How You Pay for the War on Terror (Hardcover)

Professor Goldstein has done a wonderful job of presenting a complex subject in terms that we all can understand. I wish this book had been published years ago and that more people had read it, maybe things would be different today.
The book explains in no uncertain terms why we cannot wage a war and cut taxes at the same time, it uncovers all the hidden costs of war and shows how we cannot possibly afford those costs without increased revenue. Goldstein has shown here that we are incurring debt that we, and our children and grandchildren, will be strapped with for many years. If we are to believe that a war on terror is in our best interests than we need to make some hard choices on how we pay for that war. This is a book that the current administration should be required to read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required "Learning" Reading, December 30, 2005

By 

GoodScienceCleanTech "Uncle B." (NM, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Real Price of War: How You Pay for the War on Terror (Hardcover)

This is both a great and a frustrating book. The title and the heroic effort the author took to make it "readable to the common man" are astounding. The topic list is very nearly complete. It needs a companion book on "How to win such (and I guess all) wars." that is the main missing element; but, the author honestly tells us he is not going there. The frustrating parts for me were the number of the author's "shoulds" which come from nowhere we can read about in his book or its references, and that he didn't/couldn't go deeper. It's my lifetime pick for required reading for all of us, so we can get the rest of the job done, eventually!!!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The economic costs in detail and personalized, June 1, 2005

By 

Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Real Price of War: How You Pay for the War on Terror (Hardcover)

Joshua Goldstein is a political scientist with a special interest in war and international relationships. In this modest volume he itemizes the economic costs of war in general and historically and shows specifically how much the average household in America is paying for the war on terror. (That would be $500 a month according to a "bill" he presents to "The Smith Household" on page 16.)

His position is nonpartisan and his tone is measured, factual and amazingly calm. It's apparent that he didn't think the war in Iraq was necessary, and it is clear that he thinks the Bush tax cuts put too much of the financial burden for the war on terror onto the shoulders of Americans of modest means. He shows that historically the rich have paid a larger portion of the cost of war than they are paying for the current war. This would only seem right since they have more to lose financially speaking. He also thinks we ought to pay for the war as the expenses arise and not put off the cost by borrowing or through deficient spending as the Bush administration has done. That way just increases the total cost of the war because we have to pay interest on the money borrowed.

Regardless of how the war is financed Goldstein shows that there will be an additional cost in terms of inflation. He sees inflation as one of the "hidden" costs of war, and relates a "History of War-Induced Inflation" on pages 76-81, and then asks, "Will the War on Terror Trigger Inflation?" His answer is most likely. However, it will not be as bad as the inflation that began during and following the Civil War, World Wars I & II, and the Vietnam War, mainly because the cost of the war on terror is nowhere near as great in terms of total GDP. As an example of the kind of inflation we have experienced in the past, Goldstein points out that the dollar was worth $18.19 in today's terms in 1915 before WW I began and worth only $9.18 in 1920, two years after the war was over. ( p. 79)

Goldstein believes "Americans are in denial about the substantial war costs we face." (p. 161) He would like to see us get over the denial and to urge our government to spend more money on the war on terror so that it might be won more quickly and in the long run cost us less. To this end he recommends increasing expenditures so that the average household would pay another $100 a month so that the "bill" would be $600 a month. (p. 196) Goldstein believes there is no such thing as "a war without sacrifice" and wants the Bush administration to be more open about that fact and to become more Churchhillian (if you will) in asking the America people to make the necessary sacrifices. Obviously, by detailing the costs of the war on terror and making that cost personal with his "bill" to the average American household, Goldstein is attempting to do this himself. I think it's a good idea; however, if the average American household had to write a check for $600 a month to the government rather than having that money just disappear from their living standard (either today or down the road) I think Mr. and Mrs. Average American would balk. One wonders if that is not Goldstein's veiled point, although his expression would deny that.

Of course the real "real" cost of war goes much deeper than the economic. The lives lost, the injured and maimed, the waste of human effort and the displacement of energies from something productive and life-affirming are most significant. Goldstein is not to be faulted for leaving these out since such matters are not part of his thesis, and that is fine since every book should have an end as well as a beginning. However, I cannot read about the subject of war without thinking about its "real" significance in human affairs beyond not only the economic and the personal costs, but the species-wide costs as well. And I would ask not just "what price war?" but what can we do about it? As an instrument of the tribal structure, has war insured that those tribes that committed themselves to its unrestricted use are the ones that have survived (and are "us") or is it the case that those tribes that survived are guaranteed to eventually go the way of the swordsman?